Trio of film crews in Stratford for shows including detective series, The Sister Boniface Mysteries
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MURDER, mystery and suspense turned Stratford’s Holy Trinity church into a Holy-wood film set as three different film crews descended on Old Town within a week.
The locations included Holy Trinity parish centre, inside the church itself and in the churchyard.
Two of the three separate sequences involved dramatic scenes for a detective series, The Sister Boniface Mysteries, and Shakespeare and Hathaway scenes in the churchyard on Tuesday.
The same day, a Dutch company filmed inside the church for a documentary following revelations – reported in the Herald in March – that Shakespeare looked just like his effigy in the building.
The activity sparked intrigue throughout the week as crowds gathered to watch the filming, but thanks to the sleuth-like investigations of Stratford’s very own dynamic detectives – Holy Trinity vicar the Rev Patrick Taylor and Herald photographer Mark Williamson – the case was quickly solved.
Mr Taylor said: “I spoke with set designers, who amazingly transformed the parish centre last Thursday before filming on Friday. This was for an episode of The Sister Boniface Mysteries.
“The designers told me the parish centre was an iconic piece of 1960s architecture which was fashionable again – it made me look at the building in a new light.
“I think the plot was about a band called The Queenmakers appearing at the fictional Great Slaughter town hall and all the actors wore period dress. I saw after one bit of filming a wreath laid outside the parish centre doors but I’ve no idea what the plot is.
“The crews were amazing and left everything in perfect condition. Even the Beatles-style poster for the band was removed from the church noticeboard,” he said.
Photographer Mark added: “There was so much filming going on it looked like Hollywood.”
The Sister Boniface Mysteries is a BritBox commission, produced by BBC Studios Production, and will be distributed internationally. It features actress Lorna Watson, who will reprise her role as sleuthing Sister Boniface after her appearance in the first series of Father Brown.
